


Rewind. Remix. Reboot.

by KatStratford



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fix-It, Friendship, Gen, Sass, Team Cap - Freeform, Timey Wimey Bullshit, a very fluffy fix, silliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-26 23:14:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18726805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatStratford/pseuds/KatStratford
Summary: In which I treat the ending of Endgame with the respect it deserves, which is to say: not much.OR: Steve has an idea, gives a speech, and gets to be petty.





	Rewind. Remix. Reboot.

Steve thought people sitting bolt upright when they got an idea was just something that happened in the movies. Then he found himself jack-knifing up at 3 a.m. on the morning he was supposed to take the grand tour of Infinity Stones History.

_ It makes sense to me _ , he thought, heart racing. His second thought, though, was that it might only make sense to him because he’d been averaging about two hours of sleep a night since the last battle, and he knew fuck all about time travel. He needed a second opinion.

Unfortunately, he didn’t know where Hulk was staying (there were no guest rooms big enough for him in Tony’s house) and he thought that waking a wizard unexpectedly might be a poor life choice. That left the guy Steve had been shaking awake after midnight since 1931.

Bucky squinted up at Steve and muttered, “Whatever dumbfuck idea you’ve got percolating in that peabrain of yours, I don’t want to hear about it.”

“Buck, I think I can bring Nat back.”

It was Bucky’s turn to sit bolt upright, nearly head-butting Steve in the process. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, that is not what I thought you were going to say.”

Steve felt his brow furrow. “What did you think I was going to say?”

“I don’t know, that you’d found a way to go stay with Peggy in 1948 or something!”

“What? That doesn’t even make sense.”

“But bringing Nat back does?” Sam piped up from the other side of the room. “How did you guys ever avoid the Nazis? You whisper like...very loud whisperers.”

“No, you just have extra sensitive ears,” Bucky grumped. “Now let Steve explain.”

Steve explained. Bucky said, “Huh.” Sam said, “Well.” Then there was 10 seconds of silence. Steve counted.

“It’s an  _ extremely _ dumb plan,” Sam said, which isn’t a  _ no _ and, in Steve’s experience, is often as enthusiastic a  _ yes _ as he’ll get out of Sam.

“What happens if it doesn’t work?” Bucky asked.

“I have an extra vial of Pym particles in case something goes wrong anywhere. I’ll just get the first five right on the first try and save the Soul Stone for last.” Steve tried to make this sound reasonable, like breaking back into Fort Lehigh and re-injecting Dr. Foster with the aether were going to be easy peasy.

“You sound awfully sure of yourself,” Sam said. “But then again, you morons did call the plan that saved half the planet a ‘time heist’ so who knows, maybe dumb and overconfident is the way to go here.”

“Why can’t you just wait until after Natasha jumps to give the stone back, like Hulk said?” Bucky asked. “Just to be sure Clint gets the stone in the first place. Then once you throw the stone back, you should get her back, right? ‘A soul for a soul’ and all that bullshit?”

“I thought of that,” Steve said. “It might work but,” his throat closes around the words. “I can’t. I can’t do that to Clint.” It was a lie; he didn’t honestly give a fuck about Clint. Sam and Bucky knew it, but didn’t call him on it, which Steve took as tacit agreement.

“You’re looking at us like we just told you this is a great idea,” Sam said, and Steve was both annoyed and overwhelmingly happy that Sam was back to call Steve on his bullshit. If Steve got through Time Heist 2 unscathed, he’d give Sam the shield and spend the rest of his life randomly calling Sam up and saying, “Whatever you’re thinking about, are you  _ sure _ ?”

“Well, it’s not the worst idea he’s ever had,” Bucky mused.

“Really?” Sam asked incredulously. “What is?”

Bucky got a faraway look in his eye. “There are just so many choices.”

“I am a tactical genius,” Steve pointed out.

“Pretty sure you calling yourself that doesn’t make it true, pal,” Bucky replied.

“If you asked  _ her _ , what would she say?” Sam asked.

“She’d say not to compromise the mission, but it won’t! At least, we can’t think of a way it would, and we’re pretty smart, right? And she said we owed it to everyone to try. Now I owe it to her to try. I do.”

“Welp, you let him give a rousing speech. There’s no talking him out of it now,” Bucky muttered.

“There was never any talking him out of it,” Sam said tiredly. “He just wanted to know if he tried it whether there was a chance he’d come back we’d all be crab people or whatever.”

“That sounds kind of cool,” Bucky said. “Would I have a metal claw?”

“I’m going back to bed,” Steve said.

“Nah,” Bucky said, levering himself out of bed. “Let’s make breakfast for everyone. Your dumb ass is gonna need the sustenance.”

****

Clint had explained it all to Steve and given Hulk exact times and coordinates. And thank whomever for that, because Steve materialized on a narrow path surrounded by sharp rocks and sheer drops. He was close enough that he could hear Clint and Nat yelling to each other over the whipping wind, joking that they should have taken the trip to Past New York instead because the weather would be better. Steve’s heart skipped a beat as he heard Natasha laugh.

He stayed low and followed their footsteps on the snowy path, speeding up near the top so he reached the grotto at the top of the cliff right behind them. Steve hid behind one of the many conveniently located huge boulders. He thought he was prepared, but his breath still caught in his throat at the sight of the Red Skull, dressed in rags and floating mid-air like a discount Nazgul.

Steve knew he could carry out the plan right then, but he’d saved the world multiple goddamn times and the universe once and he figured he’d earned the right to be petty. So he waited until the Skull started on, “A soul for…” before yelling “Clint! Catch!” and aiming the Soul Stone right where he knew Clint would automatically raise his right hand.

He pressed the button on the time GPS as soon as the stone left his hand, so he only caught a glimpse of Clint shrugging, Nat grinning, and the Red Skull looking confused and apoplectic. Steve thought that even if he returned to a world of crab people, that last view might just have been worth it.

Instead he rematerialized on the platform just as Hulk finishes saying, “...one.” Bucky was standing right where he left him, only now he had his arm slung around Natasha’s shoulders.

Steve grinned and waved.

“You unbelievable asshole,” she said when he walked over to kiss her forehead. “You couldn’t have just handed us the damn stone at the bottom of the mountain? My ass still hurts from that climb.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said primly. “Certainly whatever it is had to be as close to the original moment as possible to avoid creating an alternate timeline. I think.”

“You mean there’s still a chance I got a metal claw somewhere?” Bucky said.

“What the hell?” Nat asked.

Steve wrapped them both in a huge hug.


End file.
